^H 



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■ , 15 1898 
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I A I 



Superstition. 



She wears a robe of pictured legends, broidered with woven lies 



A LECTURE. 



BY 



Robert G. Ingersoll. 



NEW YORK, 
C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

1898. 




AN ENTIRELY N EW EDITION. 

OCT 2 1 1 i ^ 

#J THE 





• 



. OQ -ion " I 



T 



DEC^^ X898 ^*>l.tjm:e: one ivow he^oy. 

Volume 1 . Large octavo, 1431 pages, wide margins, large 
and handsome type ; fine steel portrait ; elegantly 
bound in cloth, gold back and side stamps ; marble 
edges ; half morocco, full sheep, library style. 

HE friends and admirers of Mr. Ingersoll's writings have long 
wanted just such a work as this. Hitherto, the publisher has 
been content with issuing each lecture, argument and other 
production separately. This volume brings together no less than 
nineteen of the Colonel's famous lectures on religious and patriotic 
subjects, and several of the orations, tributes and selections that have 
become classics in literature. It is a delight to find them here in 
such admirable and ready form for preservation and reference. The 
edition will doubtless soon be exhausted, and a second volume is 
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selves to a copy of this first volume will want to see the series com- 
pleted — will not be happy until it is. 

C01TTE1TT3 O^ -SrOX/CTME ±. 
The Gods; Humboldt; Individuality; Thomas Paine ; Heretics and Heresies ; 
The Ghosts ; The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child ; The Centennial Oration, 
or Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1876. What I Know About Farming 
in Illinois ; Speech at Cincinnati in 1876, nominating James G. Blaine for the 
Presidency ; The Past Rises Before Me ; or, Vision of War, an extract from a 
Speech made at the Soldiers and Sailors Reunion at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
Sept. 21, 1876; A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll ; The Grant Banquet ; Crimes 
Against Criminals ; Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clarke. Some Mistakes of 
Moses ; What Must We Do to be Saved ? Blasphemy, Argument in the trial of 
C. B. Reynolds. Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons T y 
the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D. ; to which is added a Talmagian Catechism, 
and four Prefaces, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's best and brightes 
sayings. 

Price, postpaid, cloth $8.50 ; half morocco $5.00 5 full sheep $5.00, 

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SUPERSTITION. 



She wears a robe of pictured legends \ broidered with woven lies. 



A LECTURE 






BY 



Robert G. Ingersoix. 




NEW YORK. 
C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

1898. 



£ 



U 2 - 



,>7- 



f 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1898, 
BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 







The Eckler Prejj 

*33 rui ton JT. 

New York. 



:OP«ES e?ECE 



SUPERSTITION. 



i. 

WHAT IS SUPERSTITION? 

To believe in spite of evidence or without evidence? 

To account for one mystery by another. 

To believe that the world is governed by chance or 
caprice. 

To disregard the true relation between cause and 
effect. 

To put thought, intention and design back of 
nature. 

To believe that mind created and controls matter. 

To believe in force apart from substance, or in sub- 
stance apart from force. 

To believe in miracles, spells and charms, in 
dreams and prophecies. 

To believe in the supernatural. 

The foundation of superstition is ignorance, the 
superstructure is faith and the dome is a vain hope. 



4 SUPERSTITION. 

Superstition is the child of ignorance and the mother 
of misery. 

In nearly every brain is found some cloud of 
superstition 

A woman drops a cloth with which she is washing 
dishes, and she exclaims : " That means company. 5 ' 

Most people will admit that there is no possible 
connection between dropping the cloth and the com- 
ing of visitors. The falling cloth could not have 
put the visit desire in the minds of people not 
present, and how could the cloth produce the desire 
to visit the particular person who dropped it ? There 
is no possible connection between the dropping of 
the cloth and the anticipated effects. 

A man catches a glimpse of the new moon over his 
left shoulder, and he says : " This is bad luck." 

To see the moon over the right or left shoulder, or 
not to see it, could not by any possibility affect the 
moon, neither could it change the effect or influence 
of the moon on any earthly thing. Certainly the 
left-shoulder glance could in no way affect the nature 
of things. All the facts in nature would remain the 
same as though the glance had been over the right 
shoulder. We see no connection between the left- 
shoulder glance and any possible evil effects upon the 
one who saw the moon in this way. 



SUPERSTITION. 5 

A girl counts the leaves of a flower, and she says : 
" One, lie comes ; two, lie tarries ; three, he courts ; 
four, he marries ; five, he goes away." 

Of course the flower did not grow, and the number 
of its leaves was not determined with reference to the 
courtship or marriage of this girl, neither could there 
have been any intelligence that guided her hand 
when she selected that particular flower. So, count- 
ing the seeds in an apple cannot in any way deter- 
mine whether the future of an individual is to be 
happy or miserable. 

Thousands of persons believe in lucky and unlucky 
days, numbers, signs and jewels. 

Many people regard Friday as an unlucky day — as 
a bad day to commence a journey, to marry, to make 
any investment. The only reason given is that 
Friday is an unlucky day. 

Starting across the sea on Friday could have no 
possible effect upon the winds, or waves, or tides, any 
more than starting on any other day, and the only 
possible reason for thinking Friday unlucky is the 
assertion that it is so. 

So it is thought by many that it is dangerous for 
thirteen people to dine together. Now, if thirteen is 
a dangerous number, twenty-six ought to be twice as 
dangerous, and fifty-two four times as terrible. 



6 SUPERSTITION. 

It is said that one of the thirteen will die in a year. 
Now, there is no possible relation between the num- 
ber and the digestion of each, between the number 
and the individual diseases. If fourteen dine together 
there is greater probability, if we take into account 
only the number, of a death within the year, than 
there would be if only thirteen were at the table. 

Overturning the salt is very unlucky, but spilling 
the vinegar makes no difference. 

Why salt should be revengeful and vinegar for- 
giving has never been told. 

If the first person who enters a theatre is cross- 
eyed, the audience will be small and the "run" a 
failure. 

How the peculiarity of the eyes of the first one 
who enters, changes the intention of a community, 
or how the intentions of a community cause the 
cross-eyed man to go early, has never been satisfac- 
torily explained. Between this so-called cause and 
the so-called effect there is, so far as we can see, no 
possible relation. 

To wear an opal is bad luck, but rubies bring 
health. How these stones affect the future, how 
they destroy causes and defeat effects, no one pretends 
to know. 

So, there are thousands of lucky and unlucky 



SUPERSTITION. 7 

things, warnings, omens and prophecies, but all 
sensible, sane and reasoning human beings know 
that every one is an absurd and idiotic superstition. 

Let us take another step : 

For many centuries it was believed that eclipses of 
the sun and moon were prophetic of pestilence or 
famine, and that comets foretold the death of kings, 
or the destruction of nations, the coming of war or 
plague. All strange appearances in the heavens — 
the Northern Lights, circles about the moon, sun 
dogs, falling stars — filled our intelligent ancestors 
with terror. They fell upon their knees — did their 
best with sacrifice and prayer to avoid the threatened 
disaster. Their faces were ashen with fear as they 
closed their eyes and cried to the heavens for help. 
The clergy, who were as familiar with God then as 
the orthodox preachers are now, knew exactly the 
meaning of eclipses and sun dogs and Northern 
Lights ; knew that God's patience was nearly ex- 
hausted ; that he was then whetting the sword of his 
wrath, and that the people could save themselves 
only by obeying the priests, by counting their beads 
and doubling their subscriptions. 

Earthquakes and cyclones filled the coffers of the 
church. In the midst of disasters the miser, with 
trembling hands, opened his purse. In the gloom of 



8 SUPERSTITION. 

eclipses thieves and robbers divided their booty with 
God, and poor, honest, ignorant girls, remembering 
that they had forgotten to say a prayer, gave their 
little earnings to soften the heart of God. 

Now we know that all these signs and wonders in 
the heavens have nothing to do with the fate of 
kings, nations or individuals ; that they had no more 
reference to human beings than to colonies of ants, 
hives of bees or the eggs of insects. We now know 
that the signs and eclipses, the comets, and the falling 
stars, would have been just the same if not a human 
being had been upon the earth. We know now that 
eclipses come at certain times and that their coming 
can be exactly foretold. 

A little w r hile ago the belief was general that there 
were certain healing virtues in inanimate things, in 
the bones of holy men and women, in the rags that 
had been torn from the foul clothing of still fouler 
saints, in hairs from martyrs, in bits of wood and 
rusty nails from the true cross, in the teeth and fin- 
ger nails of pious men, and in a thousand other 
sacred things. 

The diseased were cured by kissing a box in 
which was kept some bone, or rag, or bit of wood, 
some holy hairs, provided the kiss was preceded or 
followed by a gift — a something for the church. 



SUPERSTITION. 9 

111 some mysterious way the virtue in tlie bone, or 
rag, or piece of wood, crept or flowed from the box, 
took possession of the sick who had the necessary 
faith, and in the name of God drove out the devils 
who were the real disease. 

This belief in the efficacy of bones or rags and 
holy hair was born of another belief — the belief that 
all diseases were produced by evil spirits. The insane 
were supposed to be possessed by devils. Epilepsy 
and hysteria were produced by the imps of Satan. 
In short, every human affliction was the work of the 
malicious emissaries of the god of hell. This belief 
was almost universal, and even in our time the sacred 
bones are believed in by millions of people. 

But to-day no intelligent man believes in the exist- 
ence of devils — no intelligent man believes that evil 
spirits cause disease — consequently, no intelligent 
person believes that holy bones or rags, sacred hairs 
or pieces of wood, can drive disease out, or in any way 
bring back to the pallid cheek the rose of health. 

Intelligent people now know that the bone of a saint 
has in it no greater virtue than the bone of any ani- 
mal. That a rag from a wandering beggar is just as 
good as one from a saint, and that the hair of a horse 
will cure disease just as quickly and surely as the 
hair of a martyr. We now know that all the sacred 



io SUPERSTITION. 

relics are religious rubbish ; that those who use them 
are for the most part dishonest, and that those who 
rely on them are almost idiotic. 

This belief in amulets and charms, in ghosts and 
devils, is superstition, pure and simple. 

Our ancestors did not regard these relics as medi- 
cine, having a curative power, but the idea was that 
evil spirits stood in dread of holy things — that they 
fled from the bone of a saint, that they feared a piece 
of the true cross, and that when holy water was 
sprinkled on a man they immediately left the prem- 
ises. So, these devils hated and dreaded the sound 
of holy bells, the light of sacred tapers, and, above 
all, the ever-blessed cross. 

In those days the priests were fishers for money, 
and they used these relics for bait. 



SUPERSTITION. n 



II. 

Let us take another step : 

This belief in the Devil and evil spirits laid the 
foundation for another belief : Witchcraft. 

It was believed that the devil had certain things to 
give in exchange for a soul. The old man, bowed 
and broken, could get back his youth — the rounded 
form, the brown hair, the leaping heart of life's 
morning — if he would sign and seal away his soul. 
So, it was thought that the malicious could by charm 
and spell obtain revenge, that the poor could be 
enriched, and that the ambitious could rise to place 
and power. All the good things of this life were at 
the disposal of the Devil. For those who resisted the 
temptations of the Evil One, rewards were waiting in 
another world, but the Devil rewarded here in this 
life. No one has imagination enough to paint the 
agonies that were endured by reason of this belief in 
witchcraft. Think of the families destroyed, of the 
fathers and mothers cast in prison, tortured and 
burned, of the firesides darkened, of the children 
murdered, of the old, the poor and helpless that were 
stretched on racks mangled and flayed ! 

Think of the days when superstition and fear were 



12 SUPERSTITION. 

in every house, in every mind, when accusation was 
conviction, when assertion of innocence was regarded 
as a confession of guilt, and when Christendom was 
insane ! 

Now we know that all of these horrors were the 
result of superstition. Now we know that ignorance 
was the mother of all the agonies endured. Now we 
know that witches never lived, that human beings 
never bargained with any devil, and that our pious 
savage ancestors were mistaken. 

Let us take another step : 

Our fathers believed in miracles, in signs and 
wonders, eclipses and comets, in the virtues of bones, 
and in the powers attributed to evil spirits. All these 
belonged to the miraculous. The world was supposed 
to be full of magic ; the spirits were sleight-of-hand 
performers — necromancers. There were no natural 
causes behind events. A devil wished, and it hap- 
pened. One who had sold his soul to Satan made a 
few motions, uttered some strange words, and the 
event was present. Natural causes were not believed 
in. Delusion and illusion, the monstrous and mirac- 
ulous, ruled the world. The foundation was gone — 
reason had abdicated. Credulity gave tongues and 
wings to lies, while the dumb and limping facts were 
left behind — were disregarded and remained untold. 



SUPERSTITION. 13 



WHAT IS A MIRACLE? 



An act performed by a master of nature without 
reference to the facts in nature. This is the only 
honest definition of a miracle. 

If a man could make a perfect circle, the diameter 
of which was exactly one-half the circumference, that 
would be a miracle in geometry. If a man could 
make twice four, nine, that would be a miracle in 
mathematics. If a man could make a stone, falling 
in the air, pass through a space of ten feet the first 
second, twenty-five feet the second second, and five 
feet the third second, that would be a miracle in 
physics. If a man could put together hydrogen, 
oxygen and nitrogen and produce pure gold, that 
would be a miracle in chemistry. If a minister were 
to prove his creed, that would be a theological miracle. 
If Congress by law would make fifty cents worth of 
silver worth a dollar, that would be a financial 
miracle. To make a square triangle would be a most 
wonderful miracle. To cause a mirror to reflect the 
faces of persons who stand behind it, instead of those 
who stand in front, would be a miracle. To make 
echo answer a question would be a miracle. In other 
words, to do anything contrary to or without regard 
to the facts in nature is to perform a miracle. 



14 SUPERSTITION. 

Now we are convinced of what is called the "uni- 
formity of nature." We believe that all things 
act and are acted upon in accordance with their 
nature; that under like conditions the results will 
always be substantially the same ; that like ever has 
and ever will produce like. We now believe that 
events have natural parents and that none die 
childless. 

Miracles are not simply impossible, but they are 
unthinkable by any man capable of thinking. 

Now, an intelligent man cannot believe that a 
miracle ever was, or ever will be, performed. 

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles 
grows. 



SUPERSTITION. 15 



III. 



Let us take another step : 

While our ancestors filled the darkness with evil 
spirits, enemies of mankind, they also believed in the 
existence of good spirits. These good spirits sus- 
tained the same relation to God that the evil ones 
did to the Devil. These good spirits protected the 
faithful from the temptations and snares of the Evil 
One. They took care of those who carried amulets 
and charms, of those who repeated prayers and 
counted beads, of those who fasted and performed 
ceremonies. These good spirits would turn aside the 
sword and arrow from the breast of the faithful. 
They made poison harmless, they protected the credu- 
lous, and in a thousand ways defended and rescued 
the true believer. They drove doubts from the 
minds of the pious, sowed the seeds of credulity and 
faith, saved saints from the wiles of women, painted 
the glories of heaven for those who fasted and prayed, 
made it possible for the really good to dispense with 
the pleasures of sense and to hate the Devil. 

These angels watched over infants who had been 
baptized, over persons who had made holy vows, over 
priests and nuns and wandering beggars who believed. 



16 SUPERSTITION. 

These spirits were of various kinds: Some had 
once been men or women, some had never lived in this 
world, and some had been angels from the commence- 
ment. Nobody pretended to know exactly what they 
were, or exactly how they looked, or in what way 
they went from place to place, or how they affected 
or controlled the minds of men. 

It was believed that the king of all these evil 
spirits was the Devil, and that the king of all the 
good spirits was God. It was also believed that God 
was in fact the king of all, and that the Devil himself 
was one of the children of this God. This God and 
this Devil were at war, each trying to secure the souls 
of men. God offered the rewards of eternal joy and 
threatened eternal pain. The Devil baited his traps 
with present pleasure, with the gratification of the 
senses, with the ecstacies of love, and laughed at the 
joys of heaven and the pangs of hell. With malicious 
hand he sowed the seeds of doubt — induced men to 
investigate, to reason, to call for evidence, to rely 
upon themselves ; planted in their hearts the love of 
liberty, assisted them to break their chains, to escape 
from their prisons and besought them to think. 
In this way he corrupted the children of men. 

Our fathers believed that they could by prayer, by 
sacrifice, by fasting, by performing certain cere- 



SUPERSTITION. 17 

monies, gain the assistance of this God and of these 
good spirits. They were not quite logical. They 
did not believe that the Devil was the author of all 
evil. They thought that flood and famine, plague 
and cyclone, earthquake and war, were sometimes 
sent by God as punishment for unbelief. They fell 
upon their knees and with white lips, prayed the good 
God to stay his hand. They humbled themselves, 
confessed their sins, and filled the heavens with their 
vows and cries. With priests and prayers they tried 
to stay the plague. They kissed the relics, fell at 
shrines, besought the Virgin and the saints, but the 
prayers all died in the heartless air, and the plague 
swept on to its natural end. Our poor fathers knew 
nothing of any science. Back of all events they 
put spirits, good or bad, angels or demons, gods or 
devils. To them nothing had what we call a natural 
cause. Everything was the work of spirits. All 
was done by the supernatural, and everything was 
done by evil spirits that they could do to ruin, punish, 
mislead and damn the children of men. This world 
was a field of battle, and here the hosts of heaven 
and hell waged war. 



SUPERSTITION. 19 



IV. 

Now, no man in whose brain the torch of reason 
burns, no man who investigates, who really thinks, 
who is capable of weighing evidence, believes in 
signs, in lucky or unlucky days, in lucky or unlucky 
numbers. He knows that Fridays and Thursdays 
are alike; that thirteen is no more deadly than 
twelve. He knows that opals affect the wearer the 
same as rubies, diamonds or common glass. He 
knows that the matrimonial chances of a maiden are 
not increased or decreased by the number of leaves 
of a flower or seeds in an apple. He knows that a 
glance at the moon over the left shoulder is as 
healthful and lucky as one over the right. He does 
not care whether the first comer to a theatre is cross- 
eyed or hump-backed, bow-legged, or as well-propor- 
tioned as Apollo. He knows that a strange cat could 
be denied asylum without bringing any misfortune 
to the family. He knows that an owl does not hoot 
in the full of the moon because a distinguished man 
is about to die. He knows that comets and eclipses 
would come if all the folks were dead. He is not 
frightened by sun dogs, or the Morning of the North 
when the glittering lances pierce the shield of night. 



20 SUPERSTITION. 

He knows that all these things occur without the 
slightest reference to the human race. He feels cer- 
tain that floods would destroy and cyclones rend and 
earthquakes devour ; that the stars would shine ; that 
day and night would still pursue each other around 
the world ; that flowers would give their perfume to 
the air, and light would paint the seven-hued arch 
upon the dusky bosom of the cloud if every human 
being was unconscious dust. 

A man of thought and sense does not believe in 
the existence of the Devil. He feels certain that 
imps, goblins, demons and evil spirits exist only in 
the imagination of the ignorant and frightened. He 
knows how these malevolent myths were made. He 
knows the part they have played in all religions. 
He knows that for many centuries a belief in these 
devils, these evil spirits, was substantially universal. 
He knows that the priest believed as firmly as the 
peasant. In those days the best educated and the 
most ignorant were equal dupes. Kings and courtiers, 
ladies and clowns, soldiers and artists, slaves and 
convicts, believed as firmly in the Devil as they did 
in God. 

Back of this belief there is no evidence, and there 
never has been. This belief did not rest on any fact. 
It was supported by mistakes, exaggerations and 



SUPERSTITION. 21 

lies. The mistakes were natural, the exaggerations 
were mostly unconscious and the lies were generally 
honest. Back of these mistakes, these exaggera- 
tions, these lies, was the love of the marvelous. 
Wonder listened with greedy ears, with wide eyes, 
and ignorance with open mouth. 

The man of sense knows the history of this belief, 
and he knows, also, that for many centuries its truth 
was established by the Holy Bible. He knows that 
the Old Testament is filled with allusions to the 
Devil, to evil spirits, and that the New Testament is 
the same. He knows that Christ himself was a be- 
liever in the Devil, in evil spirits, and that his princi- 
pal business was casting out devils from the bodies 
of men and women. He knows that Christ himself, 
according to the New Testament, was not only 
tempted by the Devil, but was carried by his Satanic 
Highness to the top of the temple. If the New 
Testament is the inspired word of God, then I admit 
that these devils, these imps, do actually exist and 
that they do take possession of human beings. 

To deny the existence of thes@ evil spirits, to deny 
the existence of the Devil, is to deny the truth of the 
New Testament. To deny the existence of these 
imps of darkness is to contradict the words of Jesus 
Christ. If these devils do not exist, if they do not 



22 SUPERSTITION. 

cause disease, if they do not tempt and mislead their 
victims, then Christ was an ignorant, superstitious 
man, insane, an impostor, or the New Testament is 
not a true record of what he said and what he pre- 
tended to do. If we give up the belief in devils, we 
must give up the inspiration of the Old and New 
Testament. We must give up the divinity of Christ. 
To deny the existence of evil spirits is to utterly de- 
stroy the foundation of Christianity. There is no 
half-way ground. Compromise is impossible. If all 
the accounts in the New Testament of casting out 
devils are false, what part of the Blessed Book is 
true ? 

As a matter of fact, the success of the Devil in the 
Garden of Eden made the coming of Christ a neces- 
sity, laid the foundation for the Atonement, crucified 
the Saviour and gave us the Trinity. 

If the Devil does not exist, the Christian creeds 
all crumble, and the superstructure known as 
" Christianity," built by the fathers, by popes, by 
priests and theologians — built with mistakes and 
falsehoods, with miracles and wonders, with blood 
and flame, with lies and legends borrowed from the 
savage world, becomes a shapeless ruin. 

If we give up the belief in devils and evil spirits, 
we are compelled to say that a witch never lived. No 



SUPERSTITION. 23 

sensible human being now believes in witchcraft. 
We know that it was a delusion. We now know that 
thousands and thousands of innocent men, women 
and children were tortured and burned for having 
been found guilty of an impossible crime, and we 
also know, if our minds have not been deformed by 
faith, that all the books in which the existence of 
witches is taught were written by ignorant and super- 
stitious men. We also know that the Old Testament 
asserted the existence of witches. According to that 
Holy Book, Jehovah was a believer in witchcraft, and 
said to his chosen people : " Thou shalt not suffer a 
witch tot live." 

This one commandment — this simple line — demon- 
strates that Jehovah was not only not God, but that 
he was a poor, ignorant, superstitious savage. This 
one line proves beyond all possible doubt that the 
Old Testament was written by men, by barbarians. 

John Wesley was right when he said that to give 
up a belief in witchcraft was to give up the Bible. 

Give up the Devil, and what can you do with the 
Book of Job ? How will you account for the lying 
spirits that Jehovah sent to mislead Ahab ? 

Ministers who admit that witchcraft is a supersti- 
tion will read the story of the Witch of Endor — will 
read it in a solemn, reverential voice — with a thea 



24 SUPERSTITION. 

logical voice — and will have the impudence to say 
that they believe it. 

It would be delightful to know that angels hover 
in the air ; that they guard the innocent, protect the 
good ; that they bend over the cradles and give 
health and happy dreams to pallid babes ; that they 
fill dungeons with the light of their presence and 
give hope to the imprisoned; that they follow the 
fallen, the erring, the outcasts, the friendless, and 
win them back to virtue, love and joy. But we have 
no more evidence of the existence of good spirits than 
of bad. The angels that visited Abraham and the 
mother of Samson are as unreal as the ghosts and 
goblins of the Middle Ages. The angel that stopped 
the donkey of Balaam, the one who walked in the 
furnace flames with Meshech, Shadrack and Abed- 
nego, the one who slew the Assyrians and the one 
who in a dream removed the suspicions of Joseph, 
were all created by the imagination of the credulous, 
by the lovers of the marvelous, and they have been 
handed down from dotage to infancy, from ignorance to 
ignorance, through all the years. Except in Catholic 
countries, no winged citizen of the celestial realm has 
visited the world for hundreds of years. Only those 
who are blind to facts can see these beautiful creat- 
ures, and only those who reach conclusions without the 



SUPERSTITION. 25 

assistance of evidence can believe in their existence. 
It is told that the great Angelo, in decorating a 
church, painted some angels wearing sandals. A 
cardinal looking at the picture said to the artist: 
" Whoever saw angels with sandals?'' Angelo an- 
swered with another question: " Whoever saw an 
angel barefooted?" 

The existence of angels has never been estab- 
lished. Of course, we know that millions and mill- 
ions have believed in seraphim and cherubim ; have 
believed that the angel Gabriel contended with the 
devil for the body of Moses ; that angels shut the 
mouths of the lions for the protection of Daniel ; that 
angels ministered unto Christ, and that countless 
angels will accompany the Saviour when he comes 
to take possession of the world. And we know that 
all these millions believe through blind, unreasoning 
faith, holding all evidence and all facts in theological 
contempt. 

But the angels come no more. They bring no 
balm to any wounded heart. Long ago they folded 
their pinions and faded from the earth and air. 
These winged guardians no longer protect the inno- 
cent ; no longer cheer the suffering ; no longer 
whisper words of comfort to the helpless. They 
have become dreams — vanished visions. 



SUPERSTITION. 27 



In the dear old religious days the earth was flat — 
a little dishing, if anything — and just above it was 
Jehovah's house, and just below it was where the 
Devil lived. God and his angels inhabited the third 
story, the Devil and his imps the basement, and the 
human race the second floor. 

Then they knew where heaven was. They could 
almost hear the harps and halleluiahs. They knew 
where hell was, and they could almost hear the groans 
and smell the sulphurous fumes. They regarded the 
volcanoes as chimneys. They were perfectly acquaint- 
ed with the celestial, the terrestrial and the infernal. 
They were quite familiar with the New Jerusalem, 
with its golden streets and gates of pearl. Then the 
translation of Enoch seemed reasonable enough, and 
no one doubted that before the Flood the sons of God 
came down and made love to the daughters of men. 
The theologians thought that the builders of Babel 
would have succeeded if God had not come down and 
caused them to forget the meaning of words. 

In those blessed days the priests knew all about 
heaven and hell. They knew that God governed the 
world by hope and fear, by promise and threat, by 



28 SUPERSTITION. 

reward and punishment. The reward was to be 
eternal and so was the punishment. It was not 
God's plan to develop the human brain, so that man 
would perceive and comprehend the right and avoid 
the wrong. He taught ignorance nothing but 
obedience, and for obedience he offered eternal joy. 
He loved the submissive — the kneelers and crawlers. 
He hated the doubters, the investigators, the thinkers, 
the philosophers. For them he created the eternal 
prison where he could feed forever the hunger of his 
hate. He loved the credulous — those who believed 
without evidence — and for them he prepared a home 
in the realm of fadeless light. He delighted in the 
company of the questionless. 

But where is this heaven, and where is this hell ? 
We now know that heaven is not just above the 
clouds and that hell is not just below the earth. The 
telescope has done away with the ancient heaven, and 
the revolving world has quenched the flames of the 
ancient hell. These theological countries, these 
imagined worlds, have disappeared. No one knows, 
and no one pretends to know, where heaven is ; and 
no one knows, and no one pretends to know, the 
locality of hell. Now the theologians say that hell 
and heaven are not places, but states of mind — con- 
ditions. 



SUPERSTITION. 29 

The belief in gods and devils lias been substan- 
tially universal. Back of the good, man placed a 
god ; back of the evil, a devil ; back of health, sun- 
shine and harvest was a good deity ; back of disease, 
misfortune and death he placed a malicious fiend. 

Is there any evidence that gods and devils exist ? 
The evidence of the existence of a god and of a devil 
is substantially the same. Both of these deities are 
inferences; each one is a perhaps. They have not 
been seen — they are invisible — and they have not 
ventured within the horizon of the senses. The old 
lady who said there must be a devil, else how could 
they make pictures that looked exactly like him, 
reasoned like a trained theologian — like a doctor of 
divinity. 

Now, no intelligent man believes in the existence 
of a devil — no longer fears the leering fiend. Most 
people who think have given up a personal God, a 
creative deity. They now talk about the " Un- 
known," the " Infinite Energy," but they put Jeho- 
vah with Jupiter. They regard them both as broken 
dolls from the nursery of the past. 

The men or women who ask for evidence — who 
desire to know the truth — care nothing for signs ; 
nothing for what are called wonders; nothing for 
lucky or unlucky jewels, days or numbers ; nothing 



3 o SUPERSTITION. 

for charms or amulets ; nothing for comets or eclipses, 
and have no belief in good or evil spirits, in gods or 
devils. They place no reliance on general or special 
' providence — on any power that rescues, protects and 
saves the good or punishes the vile and vicious. 
They do not believe that in the whole history of 
mankind a prayer has been answered. They think 
that all the sacrifices have been wasted, and that all 
the incense has ascended in vain. They do not be- 
lieve that the world was created and prepared for 
man any more than it was created and prepared for 
insects. They do not think it probable that whales 
were invented to supply the Eskimo with blubber, or 
that flames were created to attract and destroy moths. 
On every hand there seems to be evidence of design — 
design for the accomplishment of good, design for 
the accomplishment of evil. On every side are the 
benevolent and malicious — something toiling to pre- 
serve, something laboring to destroy. Everything 
surrounded by friends and enemies — by the love that 
protects, by the hate that kills. Design is as apparent 
in decay, as growth ; in failure, as success ; in grief, 
as joy. Nature with one hand building, with one 
hand tearing down, armed with sword and shield — 
slaying and protecting, and protecting but to slay. 
All life journeying towards death, and all death 



SUPERSTITION. 31 

hastening back to life. Everywhere waste and 
economy, care and negligence. 

We watch the flow and ebb of life and death — the 
great drama that forever holds the stage, where players 
act their parts and disappear ; the great drama in 
which all must act — ignorant and learned, idiotic and 
insane — without rehearsal and without the slightest 
knowledge of a part, or of any plot or purpose in the 
play. The scene shifts ; some actors disappear and 
others come, and again the scene shifts; mystery 
everywhere. We try to explain, and the explanation 
of one fact contradicts another. Behind each veil 
removed, another. All things equal in wonder. One 
drop of water as wonderful as all the seas ; one grain 
of sand as all the world ; one moth with painted 
wings as all the things that live ; one egg from which 
warmth, in darkness, woos to life an organized and 
breathing form — a form with sinews, bones and 
nerves, with blood and brain, with instincts, passions, 
thoughts and wants — as all the stars that wheel in 
space. 

The smallest seed that, wrapped in soil, has dreams 
of April rains and days of June, withholds its secret 
from the wisest men. The wisdom of the world 
cannot explain one blade of grass, the faintest motion 
of the smallest leaf. And yet theologians, popes, 



32 SUPERSTITION. 

priests, parsons, who speechless stand before the 
wonder of the smallest thing that is, know all about 
the origin of worlds, know when the beginning was, 
when the end will be, know all about the God who 
with a wish created all, know what his plan and 
purpose was, the means he uses and the end he seeks. 
To them all mysteries have been revealed, except the 
mystery of things that touch the senses of a living 
man. 

But honest men do not pretend to know ; they are 
candid and sincere ; they love the truth ; they admit 
their ignorance, and they say, " We do not know." 

After all, why should we worship our ignorance, 
why should we kneel to the Unknown, why should 
we prostrate ourselves before a guess ? 

If God exists, how do we know that he is good, 
that he cares for us ? The Christians say that their 
God has existed from eternity ; that he forever has 
been, and forever will be, infinite, wise and good. 
Could this God have avoided being God ? Could he 
have avoided being good? Was he wise and good 
without his wish or will ? 

Being from eternity, he was not produced. He 
was back of all cause. What he is, he was, and will 
be, unchanged, unchangeable. He had nothing to 
do with the making or developing of his character. 



SUPERSTITION, 33 

Nothing to do with the development of his mind. 
What he was, he is He has made no progress. 
What he is, he will be, there can be no change. 
Why then, I ask, should we praise him ? He could 
not have been different from what he was and is. 
Why should we pray to him, he cannot change ? 

And yet Christians implore their God not to do 
wrong. 

The meanest thing charged against the Devil is 
that he leads the children of men into temptation, 
and yet, in the Lord's Prayer, God is insultingly 
asked not to imitate the king of fiends. 

" Lead us not into temptation." 

Why should God demand praise ? He is as he 
was. He has never learned anything; has never 
practiced any self-denial ; was never tempted, never 
touched by fear or hope, and never had a want. 
Why should he demand our praise ? 

Does anyone know that this God exists; that he 
ever heard or answered any prayer? Is it known 
that he governs the world ; that he interferes in the 
affairs of men ; that he protects the good or punishes 
the wicked? Can evidence of this be found in the 
history of mankind? If God governs the world, 
why should we credit him for the good and not 
charge him with the evil? To justify this God we 



34 SUPERSTITION* 

must say that good is good and that evil is also good. 
If all is done by this God we should make no dis- 
tinction between his actions — between the actions of 
the infinitely wise, powerful and good. If we thank 
him for sunshine and harvest we should also thank 
him for plague and famine. If we thank him for 
liberty, the slave should raise his chained hands in 
worship and thank God that he toils unpaid with the 
lash upon his naked back. If we thank him for 
victory we should thank him for defeat. 

Only a few days ago our President, by proclama- 
tion, thanked God for giving us the victory at 
Santiago. He did not thank him for sending the 
yellow fever. To be consistent the President should 
have thanked him equally for both. 

The truth is that good and evil spirits — gods and 
devils — are beyond the realm of experience ; beyond 
the horizon of our senses ; beyond the limits of our 
thoughts ; beyond imagination's utmost flight. 

Man should think; he should use all his 
senses ; he should examine ; he should reason. The 
man who cannot think is less than man; the man 
who will not think is traitor to himself; the man 
who fears to think is superstition's slave. 



SUPERSTITION, 35 



VI. 



What harm does superstition do? What harm in 
believing in fables, in legends? 

To believe in signs and wonders, in amulets, 
charms and miracles, in gods and devils, in heavens 
and hells, makes the brain an insane ward, the world 
a madhouse, takes all certainty from the mind, makes 
experience a snare, destroys the kinship of effect 
and cause — the unity of nature — and makes man 
a trembling serf and slave. With this belief a knowl- 
edge of nature sheds no light upon the path to be 
pursued. Nature becomes a puppet of the unseen 
powers. The fairy, called the supernatural, touches 
with her wand a fact, it disappears. Causes are 
barren of effects, and effects are independent of all 
natural causes. Caprice is king. The foundation is 
gone. The great dome rests on air. There is no 
constancy, in qualities, relations or results. Reason 
abdicates and superstition wears her crown. 

The heart hardens and the brain softens. 

The energies of man are wasted in a vain effort to 
secure the protection of the supernatural. Credulity, 
ceremony, worship, sacrifice and prayer take the place 
of honest work, of investigation, of intellectual effort, 



36 SUPERSTITION. 

of observation, of experience. Progress becomes im- 
possible. 

Superstition is, always has been, and forever will 
be, the enemy of liberty. 

Superstition created all the gods and angels, all 
the devils and ghosts, all the witches, demons and 
goblins, gave us all the augurs, soothsayers and 
prophets, filled the heavens with signs and wonders, 
broke the chain of cause and effect, and wrote the 
history of man in miracles and lies. Superstition 
made all the popes, cardinals, bishops and priests, all 
the monks and nuns, the begging friars and the 
filthy saints, all the preachers and exhorters, all the 
" called " and " set apart.' ' Superstition made men 
fall upon their knees before beasts and stones, caused 
them to worship snakes and trees and insane phan- 
toms of the air, beguiled them of their gold and toil, 
and made them shed their children's blood and give 
their babes to flames. Superstition built the cathe- 
drals and temples, all the altars, mosques and 
churches, filled the world with amulets and charms, 
with images and idols, with sacred bones and holy 
hairs, with martyrs' blood and rags, with bits of 
wood that frighten devils from the breasts of men. 
Superstition invented and used the instruments of tor- 
ture, flayed men and women alive, loaded millions with 



SUPERSTITION. 37 

chains and destroyed hundreds of thousands with fire. 
Superstition mistook insanity for inspiration and the 
ravings of maniacs for prophesy, for the wisdom of 
God. Superstition imprisoned the virtuous, tortured 
the thoughtful, killed the heroic, put chains on the 
body, manacles on the brain, and utterly destroyed 
the liberty of speech/ Superstition gave us all the 
prayers and ceremonies ; taught all the kneelings, 
genuflections and prostrations ; taught men to hate 
themselves, to despise pleasure, to scar their flesh, 
to grovel in the dust, to desert their wives and chil- 
dren, to shun their fellow men, and to spend their 
lives in useless pain and prayer. Superstition taught 
that human love is degrading, low and vile ; taught 
that monks are purer than fathers, that nuns are 
holier than mothers, that faith is superior to fact, 
that credulity leads to heaven, that doubt is the road 
to hell, that belief is better than knowledge, and that 
to ask for evidence is to insult God. Superstition is, 
always has been, and forever will be, the foe of prog- 
ress, the enemy of education and the assassin of 
freedom. It sacrifices the known to the unknown, 
the present to the future, this actual world to the 
shadowy next. It has given us a selfish heaven, and 
a hell of infinite revenge ; it has filled the world with 
hatred, war and crime, with the malice of meekness 



38 SUPERSTITION. 

and the arrogance of humility. Superstition is the 
only enemy of science in all the world. 

Nations, races, have been destroyed by this monster. 
For nearly two thousand years the infallible agent of 
God has lived in Italy. That country has been 
covered with nunneries, monasteries, cathedrals and 
temples — filled with all varieties of priests and holy 
men. For centuries Italy was enriched with the gold 
of the faithful. All roads led to Rome, and these 
roads were filled with pilgrims bearing gifts, and yet 
Italy, in spite of all the prayers, steadily pursued the 
downward path, died and was buried, and would at 
this moment be in her grave had it not been for 
Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi. For her poverty, 
her misery, she is indebted to the holy Catholic 
Church, to the infallible agents of God. For the life 
she has she is indebted to the enemies of superstition, 
A few years ago Italy was great enough to build a 
monument to Giordana Bruno — Bruno, the victim of 
the " Triumphant Beast;" — Bruno, the sublimest of 
her sons. 

Spain was at one time owner of half the earth, and 
held within her greedy hands the gold and silver of 
the world. At that time all nations were in the 
darkness of superstition. At that time the world 
was governed by priests. Spain clung to her 



SUPERSTITION. 39 

creed. Some nations began to think, but Spain 
continued to believe. In some countries, priests 
lost power, but not in Spain. The power behind 
her throne was the cowled monk. In some coun- 
tries men began to interest themselves in science, 
but not in Spain. Spain told her beads and con- 
tinued to pray to the Virgin. Spain was busy 
saving her soul. In her zeal she destroyed 
herself. She relied on the supernatural ; not on 
knowledge, but superstition. Her prayers were 
never answered. The saints were dead. They 
could not help, and the Blessed Virgin did not hear. 
Some countries were in the dawn of a new day, but 
Spain gladly remained in the night. With fire and 
sword she exterminated the men who thought. Her 
greatest festival was the Auto da Fe. Other nations 
grew great while Spain grew small. Day by day 
her power waned, but her faith increased. One by 
one her colonies were lost, but she kept her creed. 
She gave her gold to superstition, her brain to 
priests, but she faithfully counted her beads. Only 
a few days ago, relying on her God and his priests, 
on charms and amulets, on holy water and pieces of 
the true cross, she waged war against the great Re- 
public. Bishops blessed her armies and sprinkled 
holy water on her ships, and yet her armies were de- 



40 SUPERSTITION. 

feated and captured, lier ships battered, beached and 
burned, and in her helplessness she sued for peace. 
But she has her creed ; her superstition is not lost. 
Poor Spain, wrecked by faith, the victim of religion ! 
Portugal, slowly dying, growing poorer every day, 
still clings to the faith. Her prayers are never an- 
swered, but she makes them still. Austria is nearly 
gone, a victim of superstition. Germany is travel- 
ing towards the night. God placed her Kaiser on 
the throne. The people must obey. Philosophers 
and scientists fall upon their knees and become the 
puppets of the divinely crowned. 



SUPERSTITION. 41 



VII. 

The believers in the supernatural, in a power su- 
perior to nature, in God, have what they call " inspired 
books." These books contain the absolute truth. 
They must be believed. He who denies them will 
be punished with eternal pain. These books are not 
addressed to human reason. They are above reason. 
They care nothing for what a man calls " facts." Facts 
that do not agree with these books are mistakes. 
These books are independent of human experience, 
of human reason. 

Our inspired books constitute what we call the 
" Bible." The man who reads this inspired book, look- 
ing for contradictions, mistakes and interpolations, 
imperils the salvation of his soul. While he reads 
he has no right to think, no right to reason. To 
believe is his only duty. 

Millions of men have wasted their lives in the 
study of this book — in trying to harmonize contra- 
dictions and to explain the obscure and seemingly 
absurd. In doing this they have justified nearly 
every crime and every cruelty. In its follies they have 
found the profoundest wisdom. Hundreds of creeds 
have been constructed from its inspired passages. 



42 SUPERSTITION. 

Probably no two of its readers have agreed as to its 
meaning. Thousands have studied Hebrew and Greek 
that they might read the Old and New Testament in 
the languages in which they were written. The more 
they studied, the more they differed. By the same 
book they proved that nearly everybody is to be lost, 
and that all are to be saved ; that slavery is a divine 
institution, and that all men should be free ; that 
polygamy is right, and that no man should have more 
than one wife ; that the powers that be are ordained 
of God, and that the people have a right to overturn 
and destroy the powers that be ; that all the actions 
of men were predestined — preordained from eternity, 
and yet. that man is free ; that all the heathen will be 
lost ; that all the heathen will be saved ; that all men 
who live according to the light of nature will be 
damned for their pains ; that you must be baptized 
by sprinkling ; that you must be baptized by immer- 
sion; that there is no salvation without baptism; 
that baptism is useless ; that you must believe in the 
Trinity ; that it is sufficient to believe in God ; that 
you must believe that a Hebrew peasant was God ; 
that at the same time he was half man, that he was 
of the blood of David through his supposed father 
Joseph, who was not his father, and that it is not 
necessary to believe that Christ was God ; that you 



UPERSTITION. 43 

must believe that the Holy Ghost proceeded; that 
it makes no difference whether you do or not ; that 
you must keep the Sabbath holy ; that Christ 
taught nothing of the kind ; that Christ established 
a church ; that he established no church ; that the 
dead are to be raised ; that there is to be no resurrec- 
tion ; that Christ is coming again ; that he has made 
his last visit ; that Christ went to hell and preached 
to the spirits in prison ; that he did nothing of the 
kind ; that all the Jews are going to perdition ; that 
they are all going to heaven ; that all the miracles 
described in the Bible were performed ; that some of 
them were not, because they are foolish, childish and 
idiotic ; that all the Bible is inspired ; that some of 
the books are not inspired ; that there is to be a gen- 
eral judgment, when the sheep and goats are to be 
divided ; that there never will be any general judg- 
ment ; that the sacramental bread and wine are 
changed into the flesh and blood of God and the 
Trinity; that they are not changed; that God has 
no flesh or blood ; that there is a place called " pur- 
gatory ; " that there is no such place ; that unbaptized 
infants will be lost ; that they will be saved ; that we 
must believe the Apostles' Creed ; that the apostles 
made no creed ; that the Holy Ghost was the father 
of Christ ; that Joseph was his father ; that the Holy 



44 SUPERSTITION, 

Ghost had the form of a dove ; that there is no Holy 
Ghost ; that heretics should be killed ; that you must 
not resist evil ; that you should murder unbelievers ; 
that you must love your enemies ; that you should 
take no thought for the morrow, but should be dili- 
gent in business ; that you should lend to all who 
ask, and that one who does not provide for his own 
household is worse than an infidel. 

In defense of all these creeds, all these contra- 
dictions, thousands of volumes have been written, 
millions of sermons have been preached, countless 
swords reddened with blood, and thousands and 
thousands of nights made lurid with the faggot's 
flames. 

Hundreds and hundreds of commentators have 
obscured and darkened the meaning of the plainest 
texts, spiritualized dates, names, numbers and even 
genealogies. They have degraded the poetic, changed 
parables to history, and imagery to stupid and im- 
possible facts; They have wrestled with rhapsody 
and prophecy, with visions and dreams, with illu- 
sions and delusions, with myths and miracles, with 
the blunders of ignorance, the ravings of insanity 
and the ecstacy of hysterics. Millions of priests and 
preachers have added to the mysteries of the inspired 
book by explanation, by showing the wisdom of 



SUPERSTITION. 45 

foolishness, the foolishness of wisdom, the mercy of 
cruelty and the probability of the impossible. 

The theologians made the Bible a master and the 
people its slaves. With this book they destroyed 
intellectual veracity, the natural manliness of man. 
With this book they banished pity from the heart, 
subverted all ideas of justice and fairness, imprisoned 
the soul in the dungeon of fear and made honest 
doubt a crimeo 

Think of what the world has suffered from fear. 
Think of the millions who were driven to insanity. 
Think of the fearful nights — nights filled with phan- 
toms, with flying, crawling monsters, with hissing 
serpents that slowly uncoiled, with vague and form- 
less horrors, with burning and malicious eyes. 

Think of the fear of death, of infinite wrath, of 
everlasting revenge in the prisons of fire, of an 
eternity, of thirst, of endless regret, of the sobs and 
sighs, the shrieks and groans of eternal pain ! 

Think of the hearts hardened, of the hearts 
broken, of the cruelties inflicted, of the agonies 
endured, of the lives darkened. 

The inspired Bible has been and is the greatest 
curse of Christendom, and will so remain as long as 
it is held to be inspired. 



SUPERSTITION. 47 



VIII. 

Our God was made by men, sculptured by sav- 
ages who did the best they could. They made our 
God somewhat like themselves, and gave to him 
their passions, their ideas of right and wrong. 

As man advanced he slowly changed his God — 
took a little ferocity from his heart, and put the light 
of kindness in his eyes. As man progressed he ob- 
tained a wider view, extended the intellectual horizon, 
and again he changed his God, making him as 
nearly perfect as he could, and yet this God was pat- 
terned after those who made him. As man became 
civilized, as he became merciful, he began to love 
justice, and as his mind expanded his ideal became 
purer, nobler, and so his God became more merciful, 
more loving. 

In our day Jehovah has been outgrown. He is no 
longer the perfect. Now theologians talk, not about 
Jehovah, but about a God of love, call him the 
Eternal Father and the perpetual friend and provi- 
dence of man. But, while they talk about this God 
of love, cyclones wreck and rend, the earthquake de- 
vours, the flood destroys, the red bolt leaping from 
the cloud still crashes the life out of men, and plague 



48 SUPERSTITION. 

and fever still are tireless reapers in the harvest 
fields of death. 

They tell us now that all is good ; that evil is 
but blessing in disguise, that pain makes strong and 
virtuous men — makes character — while pleasure en- 
feebles and degrades. If this be so, the souls in hell 
should grow to greatness, while those in heaven 
should shrink and shrivel. 

But we know that good is good. We know that 
good is not evil, and that evil is not good. We know 
that light is not darkness, and that darkness is not 
light. But we do not feel that good and evil were 
planned and caused by a supernatural God. We 
regard them both as necessities. We neither thank 
nor curse. We know that some evil can be avoided 
and that the good can be increased. We know that 
this can be done by increasing knowledge, by devel- 
oping the brain. 

As Christians have changed their God, so they 
have accordingly changed their Bible. The impossi- 
ble and absurd, the cruel and the infamous, have 
been mostly thrown aside, and thousands are now 
engaged in trying to save the inspired word. Of 
course, the orthodox still cling to every word, and 
still insist that every line is true. They are literal- 
ists. To them the Bible means exactly what it says. 



SUPERSTITION. 49 

They want no explanation. They care nothing for 
commentators. Contradictions cannot disturb their 
faith. They deny that any contradictions exist. 
They loyally stand by the sacred text, and they give 
it the narrowest possible interpretation. They are 
like the janitor of an apartment house who refused 
to rent a flat to a gentleman because he said he had 
children. "But," said the gentleman, "my children 
are both married and live in Iowa." "That makes no 
difference," said the janitor, " I am not allowed to rent 
a flat to any man who has children." 

All the orthodox churches are obstructions on the 
highway of progress. Every orthodox creed is a chain, 
a dungeon. Every believer in the "inspired book " 
is a slave who drives reason from her throne, and in 
her stead crowns fear. 

Reason is the light, the sun, of the brain. It is 
the compass of the mind, the ever-constant Northern 
Star, the mountain peak that lifts itself above all 
cloudso 



SUPERSTITION. 51 



IX. 



There were centuries of darkness when religion 
had control of Christendom. Superstition was almost 
universal. Not one in twenty thousand could read 
or write. During these centuries the people lived 
with their back to the sunrise, and pursued their way 
toward the dens of ignorance and faith. There was 
no progress, no invention, no discovery. On every 
hand cruelty and worship, persecution and prayer. 
The priests were the enemies of thought, of investi- 
gation. They were the shepherds, and the people 
were their sheep and it was their business to guard 
the flock from the wolves of thought and doubt. This 
world was of no importance compared with the next. 
This life was to be spent in preparing for the life to 
come. The gold and labor of men were wasted in 
building cathedrals and in supporting the pious and 
the useless. During these Dark Ages of Christianity, 
as I said before, nothing was invented, nothing was 
discovered, calculated to increase the well-being of 
men. The energies of Christendom were wasted in 
the vain effort to obtain assistance from the super- 
natural. 

For centuries the business of Christians was to 



52 SUPERSTITION. 

wrest from the followers of Mohammed the empty 
sepulcher of Christ. Upon the altar of this folly 
millions of lives were sacrificed, and yet the soldiers 
of the impostor were victorious, and the wretches who 
carried the banner of Christ were scattered like leaves 
before the storm. 

There was, I believe, one invention during these 
ages. It is said that, in the Thirteenth Century, 
Roger Bacon, a Franciscan monk, invented gun- 
powder, but this invention was without a fellow. 
Yet we cannot give Christianity the credit, because 
Bacon was an infidel, and was great enough to say 
that in all things reason must be the standard. He 
was persecuted and imprisoned, as most sensible men 
were in those blessed days. The Church was tri- 
umphant. The sceptre and mitre were in her hands, 
and yet her success was the result of force and 
fraud, and it carried within itself the seeds of its 
defeat. The Church attempted the impossible. It 
endeavored to make the world of one belief ; to force 
all minds to a common form, and utterly destroy the 
individuality of man. To accomplish this it em- 
ployed every art and artifice that cunning could 
suggest It inflicted every cruelty by every means 
that malice could invent. 

But, in spite of all, a few men began to think. 



SUPERSTITION. 53 

They became interested in the affairs of this world — 
in the great panorama of nature. They began to seek 
for causes, for the explanations of phenomena. They 
were not satisfied with the assertions of the Church. 
These thinkers withdrew their gaze from the skies 
and looked at their own surroundings. They were 
unspiritual enough to desire comfort here. They 
became sensible and secular, worldly and wise. 

What was the result ? They began to invent, to 
discover, to find the relation between facts, the 
conditions of happiness and the means that would 
increase the well-being of their fellow men. 

Movable types were invented, paper was borrowed 
from the Moors, books appeared, and it became possi- 
ble to save the intellectual wealth so that each gener- 
ation could hand it to the next. History began to 
take the place of legend and rumor. The telescope 
was invented. The orbits of the stars were traced, 
and men became citizens of the universe. The steam 
engine was constructed, and now steam, the great 
slave, does the work of hundreds of millions of men. 
The Black Art, the impossible, was abandoned, and 
chemistry, the useful, took its place. Astrology 
became astronomy. Kepler discovered the three 
great laws, one of the greatest triumphs of human 
genius, and our constellation became a poem, a sym- 



54 SUPERSTITION. 

phony. Newton gave us the mathematical expres- 
sion of the attraction of gravitation. Harvey dis- 
covered the circulation of the blood. He gave us the 
fact, and Draper gave us the reason. Steamships 
conquered the seas and railways covered the land. 
Houses and streets were lighted with gas. Through 
the invention of matches fire became the companion 
of man. The art of photography became known; 
the sun became an artist. Telegraphs and cables 
were invented. The lightning became a carrier of 
thought, and the nations became neighbors. Anaes- 
thetics were discovered and pain was lost in sleep. 
Surgery became a science. The telephone was in- 
vented — the telephone that carries and deposits in 
listening ears the waves of words. The phonograph, 
that catches and retains in marks and dots and gives 
again the echoes of our speech. - 

Then came electric light that fills the night with 
day, and all the wonderful machines that use the 
subtle force — the same force that leaps from the 
summer cloud to ravage and destroy. 

The Spectrum Analysis that tells us of the sub- 
stance of the sun ; the Rontgen rays that change 
the opaque to the transparent. The great thinkers 
demonstrated the indestructibility of force and 
matter — demonstrated that the indestructible could 



SUPERSTITION. 55 

not have been created. The . geologist, in rocks and 
deposits and mountains and continents, read a little 
of the story of the world — of its changes, of the 
glacial epoch — the story of vegetable and animal life. 
The biologists, through the fossil forms of life, 
established the antiquity of man and demonstrated 
the worthlessness of Holy Writ. Then came evolu- 
tion, the survival of the fittest and natural selection. 
Thousands of mysteries were explained and science 
wrested the scepter from superstition. The cell 
theory was advanced, and embryology was studied ; 
the microscope discovered germs of disease and 
taught us how to stay the plague. These great 
theories and discoveries, together with countless in- 
ventions, are the children of intellectual liberty. 



SUPERSTITION. 57 



X. 

After all we know but little. In the darkness of 
life there are a few gleams of light. Possibly the 
dropping of a dishcloth prophesies the coming of 
company, but we have no evidence. Possibly it is 
dangerous for thirteen to dine together, but we have 
no evidence. Possibly a maiden's matrimonial 
chances are determined by the number of seeds in an 
apple, or by the number of leaves on a flower, but we 
have no evidence. Possibly certain stones give good 
luck to the wearer, while the wearing of others bring 
loss and death. Possibly a glimpse of the new 
moon over the left shoulder brings misfortune. 
Possibly there are curative virtues in old bones, 
in sacred rags and holy hairs, in images and 
bits of wood, in rusty nails and dried blood, but the 
trouble is we have no evidence. Possibly comets, 
eclipses and shooting stars foretell the death of 
kings, the destruction of nations or the coming of 
plague. Possibly devils take possession of the 
bodies and minds of men. Possibly witches, with 
the Devil's help, control the winds, breed storms on 
sea and land, fill summer's lap with frosts and snow, 
and work with charm and spell against the public 



58 SUPERSTITION. 

weal, but of this we have no evidence. It may be 
that all the miracles described in the Old and New 
Testament were performed ; that the pallid flesh of 
the dead felt once more the thrill of life; that 
the corpse arose and felt upon his smiling lips the 
kiss of wife and child. Possibly water was turned 
into wine, loaves and fishes increased, and possibly 
devils were expelled from men and women ; possibly 
fishes were found with money in their mouths ; pos- 
sibly clay and spittle brought back the light to sight- 
less eyes, and possibly words cured disease and made 
the leper clean, but of this we have no evidence. 

Possibly iron floated, rivers divided, waters burst 
from dry bones, birds carried food to prophets and 
angels flourished drawn swords, but of this we have 
no evidence. 

Possibly Jehovah employed lying spirits to deceive 
a king, and all the wonders of the savage world may 
have happened, but the trouble is there is no proof. 

So there may be a Devil, almost infinite in cunning 
and power, and he may have a countless number of 
imps whose only business is to sow the seeds of evil 
and to vex, mislead, capture and imprison in eternal 
flames the souls of men. All this, so far as we know, 
is possible. All we know is that we have no evidence 
except the assertions of ignorant priests. 



SUPERSTITION. 59 

Possibly there is a place called "hell," where all the 
devils live — a hell whose flames are waiting for all the 
men who think and have the courage to express their 
thoughts, for all who fail to credit priests and sacred 
books, for all who walk the path that reason lights, 
for all the good and brave who lack credulity and 
faith — but of this, I am happy to say, there is no proof. 

And so there may be a place called " heaven," the 
home of God, where angels float and fly and play on 
harps and hear with joy the groans and shrieks of 
the lost in hell, but of this there is no evidence. 

It all rests on dreams and visions of the insane. 

There may be a power superior to nature, a power 
that governs and directs all things, but the existence 
of this power has not been established. 

In the presence of the mysteries of life and thought, 
of force and substance, of growth and decay, of birth 
and death, of joy and pain, of the sufferings of the 
good, the triumphs of wrong, the intelligent honest 
man is compelled to say: "I do not know." 

But we do know how gods and devils, heavens and 
hells, have been made. We know the history of in- 
spired books — the origin of religions. We know 
how the seeds of superstition were planted and what 
made them grow. We know that all superstitions, 
all creeds, all follies and mistakes, all crimes and 



60 SUPERSTITION. 

cruelties, all virtues, vices, hopes and fears, all dis- 
coveries and inventions, have been naturally pro- 
duced. By the light of reason we divide the useful 
from the hurtful, the false from the true. 

We know the past — the paths that man has trav- 
eled — his mistakes, his triumphs. We know a few 
facts, a few fragments, and the imagination, the 
artist of the mind, with these facts, these fragments, 
rebuilds the past, and on the canvas of the future 
deftly paints the things to be. 

We believe in the natural, in the unbroken and 
unbreakable succession of causes and effects. We 
deny the existence of the supernatural. We do not 
believe in any God who can be pleased with incense, 
with kneeling, with bell-ringing, psalm-singing, bead- 
counting, fasting or prayer — in any God who can be 
flattered by words of faith or fear. 

We believe in the natural. We have no fear of 
devils, ghosts or hells. We believe that Mahatmas, 
astral bodies, materializations of spirits, crystal 
gazing, seeing the future, telepathy, mind reading 
and Christian Science are only cunning frauds, the 
genuineness of which is established by the testimony 
of incompetent, honest witnesses. We believe that 
Cunning plates fraud with the gold of honesty, and 
veneers vice with virtue. 



SUPERSTITION. 61 

We know that millions are seeking the impossible 
— trying to secure the aid of the supernatural — to 
solve the problem of life — to guess the riddle of 
destiny, and to pluck from the future its secret. We 
know that all their efforts are in vain. 

We believe in the natural. We believe in home 
and fireside — in wife and child and friend — in the 
realities of this world. We have faith in facts — in 
knowledge — in the development of the brain. We 
throw away superstition and welcome science. We 
banish the phantoms, the mistakes and lies and 
cling to the truth. We do not enthrone the unknown 
and crown our ignorance. We do not stand with our 
backs to the sun and mistake our shadow for God. 

We do not create a master and thankfully wear 
his chains. We do not enslave ourselves. We want 
no leaders — no followers. Our desire is that every 
human being shall be true to himself, to his ideal, 
unbribed by promises, careless of threats. We want 
no tyrant on the earth or in the air. 

We know that superstition has given us delusions 
and illusions, dreams and visions, ceremonies and 
cruelties, faith and fanaticism, beggars and bigots, 
persecutions and prayers, theology and torture, piety 
and poverty, saints and slaves, miracles and mum- 
meries, disease and death. 



62 SUPERSTITION. 

i^We know that science has given us all we have of 
value. Science is the only civilizer. It has freed the 
slave, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, lengthened 
life, given us homes and hearths, pictures and books, 
ships and railways, telegraphs and cables, engines 
that tirelessly turn the countless wheels, and it has 
destroyed the monsters, the phantoms, the winged 
horrors that filled the savage brain. 

Science is the real redeemer. It will put honesty 
above hypocrisy; mental veracity above all belief. 
It will teach the religion of usefulness. It will 
destroy bigotry in all its forms. It will put thought- 
ful doubt above thoughtless faith. It will give us 
philosophers, thinkers and savants, instead of priests, 
theologians and saints. It will abolish poverty and 
crime, and greater, grander, nobler than all else, it 
will make the whole world free. 



1897 JUST OUT 1897 



TWO NEW LECTURES 



—BY- 



COL. R. G. INGERSOLL. 



jp[ <9HANI(3GIYING SERMON, 

ALSO, 

A Tribute to Henry Ward Beecher. 

In oxio laaxiOLSorae t>oo"k.. Price, paper, 2J3 cts. 



&5HY 1 AM AN flGNOSTIG. 

Entirely rewritten and greatly enlarged. Never before pub- 
lished. Price, paper, 25 cts. 



Address C. F>. FHRRELL, PUBLISHER, 

220 MADISON AVENUE, 

New York, N. Y. 



S. H^W "Sl'DITIO'R. TOST PUBT-LlSSSm \ 

% gbort Risforxf of ffie Bible: 

Being an account of the formation and development of the Canon, by 

BRONSON C. KEBLER. 

Price, Cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 50 cents. Postage paid. 

This Book should be read by every Clergyman, Layman, Scholar and Liberal. 

Everybody knows that the contents of the Bible were voted upon by different 
councils of the church ; that books were included in the early centuries which 
are no longer regarded as a part of the sacred scriptures ; that many of the 
books now in the Bible were for centuries not a part of it ; and that bishops, and 
synods, and councils labored long to agree upon what books should be con- 
sidered canonical and what should not be. But the general knowledge has been 
indefinite. Few people are aware, for example, that the book of Revelation 
was for 1500 years rejected by the Eastern branch of the Christian church, and 
was voted into the Bible by that branch at a council held in Jerusalem in 1672. 
The aim of Mr. Keeler's book is to go over this entire ground from the beginning 
of the Christian era to the present time, and to furnish all the facts concerning 
the formation and development of the Bible canon, giving briefly but succinctly 
the views of each bishop arid the action of every council having any influence 
on the contents of the sacred volume. Mr. Keeler does not deal in opinions. He 
simply states facts, and gives a reference for each fact to the early Christian 
fathers and other recognized authorities ; and it is believed that his book 
throws much light on a hitherto obscured department of religious history. 

" I have read Mr. Keeler's book with great pleasure and profit. He gives, in 
my opinion, a clear and intelligent account of the growth of the bible. He 
shows why books were received as inspired, and why they were rejected. He 
does not deal in opinions, but in facts ; and for the correctness of his facts, he 
refers to the highest authorities. He has shown exactly who the Christian 
fathers were, and the weight that their evidence is entitled to. The first cen- 
turies of Christianity are filled with shadow ; most histories of that period 
simply tell us what did not happen, and even the statements of what did not 
happen are contradictory. The falsehoods do not agree. Mr. Keeler must have 
spent a great deal of time in the examination of a vast number of volumes, and 
the amount of information contained in his book could not be collected in years. 
Every minister, every college professor, and every man who really wishes to 
know something about the origin and growth of the bible, should read this 
book."— R. G. INGERSOLL. 

To C. P. Farrell, Esq.— Often have I wished that some writer, who had a 
learned head and a lucid pen, would give us a brief yet comprehensive account 
of the Books of the Bible —how we came by them — when the world first got 
them — and what were the qualities, characters and pretensions of those who 
first imposed them upon credulous and superstitious believers. Often have I 
wished that if such a book were written, some publisher, having the ear of the 
Free Thought world, would issue it. Great was my surprise and pleasure when 
I saw at Washington, Bronson Keeler's "Short History of the Bible 1 ' we have, 
and the marvellous number of suppressed Scriptures — all Christian, all curi- 
ous, all instructive — most of them wiser, all equally authentic, and all believed 
to be equally divine by those who had better means of judging them than we 
have. All who are Christian — all who think they ought to be — and all who 
are not — should read Mr. Keeler's " Short," masterly and wise book.— George 

\COB Holyoake, London, England. 

The New York Sim, (Sunday, Oct. 9, 1881, in a review occupying four and one- 
quarter columns) : "On what questionable ground some writings were admitted 
and others excluded from the Christian scriptures is briefly and effectively set 
forth in a monograph entitled '■A Short History of the Bible, 1 by Bronson C. 
Keeler. The writer of this striking essa^ has not drawn his materials from the 
German rationalists, but bases his assertions on the statements of Christian his- 
torians and commentators, especially on the writings of the Christian fathers 
and the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius, and, among modern works, on 
Milman's * History of Latin Christianity,'' and the disquisitions of Wescott, 
Davidson, Lange and Schaff. We trust that no one who has been led by the 
appearance of the revised version to ponder the origin and history of the sacred 
writings will fail to examine for himself Mr. Keeler's admirable monograph." 

Address C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, New lYork. 



K NEM BOOK. JUST OUT! 



Essays and Criticisms, 

IN ONE VOIvUTvIE. 

A Series of articles from the North American Review, 



-BY — 



Robert G. Ingersoll. 

CONTENTS. 

tfhjj Am I an jjgnotfio ? parti* I and II. 
P^ofe^oi 1 Jlu^leij and i^nogfeicigm. 
lm$ ^eqan. 
Count Tolgtoi and "The Ideate $onata." 

THESE interesting papers appeared at intervals in the 
North American Review several years ago, and have 
for a long time been out of print and impossible to get. The 
republication in book form at a popular price is in response to 
innumerable requests from all parts of the country. These 
papers if in print in their original form would cost any one 
$2.50. They are now published in an o6lavo volume, from 
new type, on good paper, at the very low price of 50 6ls. in 
cloth ; 25 6ls. in paper. 

Sent postpaid to any address in America, Canada or Europe. 
~«+ » . 

Address: O. P. FHRRELL, Publisher, 
NEW YORK, 1ST. Y # (over.) 



JUST OUT! 



A NEW 

LITHOGRAPH 
PORTRAIT 



— OK- 



Col. R. G. Ingersoll. 

Life size head and bust ; tinted back ground* 

JUST THE THING FOR FRAMING. 

A PERFECT LIKENESS. 

Every admirer of this great man should 
have one hanging on his wall. 

Price, postpaid, 50 cents. 

Address C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, 
220 Madison Avenue, New York. 



Robert G. Ingersoll's Works. 

GodS and Other Lectures. Comprising the Gods, Humboldt, Thomas 
Paine, Individuality, Heretics and Heresies. Paper 50c; cloth, $1.00. 

GhOStS and Other Lectures. Including The Ghosts, Liberty of Man 
Woman, and Child; The Declaration of Independence, About Farming in 
Illinois, Speech nominating James G. Blaine for Presidency in 1876, The Grant 
Banquet, A Tribute to Eev. Alex. Clark, The Past Rises before Me Like a Dream, 
and A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll. Paper, 50c; cloth, $1.00. 

Some Mistakes of Moses. 270 pages, paper, 50c; cloth, $1.00. 

Interviews On TaSmage. Being Six Interviews with the Famous 
Orator on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage of Brooklyn, to which 
is added a Talmagian Catechism. Paper, 50c; cloth, $1.25. 

Blasphemy. Argument by R. G. Ingersoll in the Trial of C. B. Reynolds, at 
Morristown, N. J. Paper, 25c; cloth, 50c 

What Must We Do to Be Saved? Analyzes the so-called gospels oi 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and devotes a chapter each to Hie Catholics, 
Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Evangelical Alliance, and answers 
the question of the Christians as to what he proposes instead of Christianity 
—the religion of sword and flame. Paper, 25 cents. 

The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child, just out. a Lecture. 

Paper, 25 cts. 

PrOSe-PoemS and Selections. Sixth edition, enlarged and re 
vised. A handsome quarto, containing 383 pages. This is, beyond question, the 
cheapest and most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its mechanical finish 
is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has been spared to make it the 
thing of beauty it is. The type is large and clear, the paper heavy, highly caleu • 
dered, and richly tinted, the presswork faultless, and the binding as perfect an 
the best materials and skill can make it. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include all of the choicest utterance* 
of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

Those who have not the good fortune to own all of Mr. Ingersoll's published works, 
will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty thought, his 
matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic and poetic 
power. The collection includes all of the " Tributes " that have become famous* 
in literature— notably those to his brother E. C. Ingersoll, Lincoln, Grant, 
Beecher, Conklin, Courtlandt M. Palmer, Mary Piske, Elizur Wright : his peer- 
less monographs on "The Vision of War," Love, Liberty, Art and Morality, 
Science, Nature, The Imagination, Decoration Day Oration, What is Poetry. 
Music of Wagner, Origin and Destiny, " Leaves of Grass," and on the great 
heroes of intellectual Liberty. Besides these there are innumerable gems taken 
here and there from the orations, speeches, arguments, toasts, lectures, letters, 
interviews, and day by day conversations of the author. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare per- 
sonal souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with auto- 
graph fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant styles 
of binding it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season or 
occasion. 

PBiCBs.—In cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, $2.50 ; in half morocco, gilt edges, |5; 
in half calf, mottled edges, library style, $4.50 ; in full Turkey morocco, gilt* 
exquisitely fine, $7.50; in full tree calf, highest possible finish. $9. cheap ed $1.50. 

Ingersoll's Lectures in one volume, contents: The Gods; 

Humboldt ; Individuality ; Thomas Paine ; Heretics and Heresies ; The Ghosts ; 
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child ; The Centennial Oration, or Declara- 
tion of Independence, July 4, 1876 ; What I Know About Farming in Illinois ; 
Speech at Cincinnati in 1876, nominating James G. Blaine for the Presidency ; 
The Past Rises Before Me, or Vision of War, an extract from a Speech made at 
the Soldiers' and Sailors' Reunion at Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 21, 1876; A Tribute 
to Ebon C. Ingersoll ; The Grant Banquet ; Crimes Against Criminals ; Tribute 
to the Rev. Alexander Clarke ; Some Mistakes of Moses ; What Must We Do to 
be Saved ? Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. 
T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.; to which is added a Talmagian Catechism, and 
Four Prefaces, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's wittiest and brightest pay- 
ings. 
This volume has the greatest popularity, is beautifully bound in half calf or half 
morocco, mottled edges, 1,431 pages, good paper, large type, post 8vo Price, 
postpaid, $5.00. Cloth, $3.5P- sheep, ^-00. 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL'S WORKS.— Continued. 

God in the Constitution. One of the best papers Colonel Ingersoll 
ever wrote. In paper cover with likeness of author. Price, 10 cents. Twelve 
copies for $i. 

Liberty in Literature. Testimonial to Walt Whitman. "Let us $ut 
wreaths on the brows of the living." An address delivered in Philadelphia, 
Oct. 21, 1890, with Portrait of Whitman. Paper, 25 cents ; cloth, 50 cents. 
Also contains the funeral oration. 

Thomas Paine'S Vindication. A Reply to the New York Observer's 
Attack upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. Ingersoll. Paper, 15 c. 

Limitations Of Toleration. A Discussion between Col. R. G. Ingersoll, 
Hon. Frederick R. Coudert, and Ex-Governor Stewart L. Woodford. Paper, 
10 cents. 

Orthodoxy. A Lecture. Paper, 10 cents. 

Civil Rights Speech. With Speech of Hon. Fred'k Douglass, Paper, 
10 cents. 

Ingersoll and the Brooklyn Divines. How the church meets 

the Demands of the Hour. Paper, 25 cts. 

A Lay Sermon. On the Labor Question. Paper, 5 cents. 

Crimes Against Criminals. Delivered before the New York State 
Bar Association, at Albany, N. Y., Jan. 21, 1890. Paper, 10 cents. 

Life. A Prose-Poem. In color, on board, beveled, gilt edges, 16% xl2, (for 
mantel, wall or easel,) 75 cents. Illustrated. 

Lithograph Of R. G. Ingersoll. 22x 28 inch., heavyplate paper, 50 c. 

photographs of Col. Ingersoll, 18x24,15.00. imperial, ry 2 x 13, $1.50. 

Cabinet, 25 cts. Ingersoll and granddaughter Eva ILL, (a home picture,) 35 cts. 

About the Holy Bible. Just out. A new Lecture About the Holy 
Bible. Price, paper, 25 cents. 

Shakespeare. Ingersoll's Great Lecture on Shakespeare, with a rare and 
handsome half-tone picture of the Kesselstadt Death Mask. Paper, 25 cts. 

Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, just out. with a handsome, new 

portrait. Price, paper, 25 cents. 

The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the Famous 

Christmas Sermon, by Colonel R. G. Ingersoll, the indignant protests thereby 
evoked from ministers of various denominations, and Col. Ingersoll's replies 
to the same. A work of tremendous interest to every thinking man and woman. 
Price, paper, 25 cts. 

IS Suicide a Sin? "Something Brand New!" Ingersoll's startling, 
brilliant and thrillingly eloquent letters, which created such a sensation when 
published in the New York World, together with the replies of famous clergymen 
and writers, a verdict from a jury of eminent men of New York, Curious Facts 
About Suicides, celebrated essays and opinions of noted men, and an astonish- 
ing and original chapter, Great Suicides of History ! Price, paper, 25 cts. 

An Open Letter to Indianapolis Clergymen. By colonel 

R. G. Ingersoll. To which is added " The Genesis of Life," by W. H. Lamaster. 
Paper, 25 cents. 



Col. Ingersoll's Note to the Public. 

Washington, D. C, July 10, 1889. 
I wish to notify the public that all books and pamphlets purporting' to contain my lec« 
tures, and not containing the imprint of Mr. C. P. Farrell as publisher, are spurious, 
grossly inaccurate, filled with mistakes, horribly printed, and outrageously unjust to me, 
The publishers of all such are simply literary thieves and pirates, and are obtaining money 
from the public under false pretences. These wretches have published one lecture under 
four titles, and several others under two or three. I take this course to warn the publio 
that these publications are fraudulent ; the only correct editions being those published by 
Mr. C. P. Farrell. 

R. G. Ingersoll. 



C. P. FARRELL, 220 Madison Ave., New York. 



New Books by Col. R. 6. Ingersoll. 



" W W W VW W VW MJ VWN 



"AbOUt the Holy Bible." New Lecture, Paper,25cts. 
Foundations Of Faith, A New Lecture. Paper, 25 cts. 
Some Reasons Why. A New Lecture. Paper, 25cts. 
Myth and Miracle. Now published for the first time. Paper, 25cts. 
Which Way ? A New Lecture, revised and enlarged. Paper, 25 cts. 

Ingersoll's Great Lecture on Shakespeare, a Master- 
piece, containing a handsome half-tone likeness of Shakespeare from the Kes- 
selstadt death mask. "Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean whose waves 
touched all the shores of thought." Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

Abraham Li nCOl n. Containing a handsome portrait, " A piece of sublime 
eulogy." Paper, 25 cts. 

Voltaire. With portrait, "He was the greatest man of his century, and did 
more to free the human race than any other of the sons of men." Paper, 25 cts. 

Liberty for Man, Woman and Child. Has a fine photo-engrav- 
ing of the Colonel and both his grandchildren, Eva and Robert; also the 
TRIBUTE TO HIS BROTHER. Paper, 25 cts. 

The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the Famous 

Christmas Sermon, by R. G. Ingersoll. Paper, 25 cts. 

IS Suicide a Sin? Ingersoll's startling, brilliant and thrillingly eloquent 
letters, which created such a sensation when published in the New York World. 
together with the replies of famous clergymen and writers. Paper, 25 cts. 

"Prose-Poems and Selections." a new and cheap edition, 

containing over 400 pages. The most elegant volume in Liberal literature. 
Good paper, wide margins, plain cloth, (sixth edition.) Price, $1.50. 

Two Patriotic Addresses, the reunion address at Eimwood* 

Ills., September 5th, 1895, and the DECORATION-DAY ORATION in New York* 
May 30th, 1882. Both in one book. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

The Centennial Oration on the Declaration of Independence, 

July 4th, 1876, and the " VISION OF WAR," in one neat pamphlet. 10 cts. 

God in the Constitution. One of the best papers Colonel Ingersoll 
ever wrote. Price, 10 cts. 

The Christian Religion. By Col. R. G. Ingersoll and Judge Jeremiah 
S. Black. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

The Field=IngerSOll DiSCUSSiOn. Faith or Agnosticism? Paper, 
25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

The Ingersoll-Gladstone Discussion on Christianity. 

Never before published in book form. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

"Life of Jesus Critically Examined," by David Friedrich 

Strauss. This edition is translated from the fourth German edition by George 
Eliot, and contains 784 large octavo pages of solid reading. This is a very valua- 
ble work, one which the church wishes had never been written, but which it 
cannot controvert. One volume, $4.50. (Now out of print and very hard to get.) 
Never sold before for less than $9.00. 

SF»EX2IAL- NOTICED. 

I have a few copies of Col. Ingersoll's speech on " Hard Times and the Way Out/ 
price, paper, 20 cts. Also a few copies of the " Conkling Memorial," with fine steel 
engraving. Price, cloth, 50 cts. 



-♦- 



Any or all the above Books sent prepaid upon receipt of price. 

C. F». FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 
220 Madison Avenue, New York. 



J~ia@t 0*a.t„ 3\Tox^ ^clitioni 

Prose-Poems ant selections, 

BY 

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 

Sixth Edition, Revised and greatly Enlarged. A Handsome Quarto, 
containing over 400 pages. 

THIS is, beyond question, the most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its 
mechanical finish is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has 
been spared to make if the thing of beauty it is. The type is large and 
clear, the paper heavy, highly calendered and richly tinted, the press- 
work faultless, and the binding as perfect as the best materials and skill can 
make it. The book is in every way an artistic triumph. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include some of the choicest 
utterances of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

You will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty 
thought, his matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic 
and poetic power. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare 
personal souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with au- 
tograph fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant 
styles of binding it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season 
or occasion, 



Oration delivered on Decora- 
tion Day, 1882. before the 
Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, at the Academy of 
Music, N". Y., 

A Tribute to Ebon C. Inger- 
soll, 

A Vision of War. 

At a Child's Grave, 

Benefits for Injuries, 

We Build, 

A Tribute to the Rev. Alex- 
ander Clark, 

The Grant Banquet, 

Apostrophe to Liberty. 

A Tribute to John G. Mills, 

The Warp and Woof, 

The Cemetery, 

Originality, 

Then and Now, 

Voltaire, 

Lazarus, 

What is Worship ? 

Humboldt, 

God Silent, 

Alcohol, 

Auguste Comte, 

The Infidel, 

Napoleon, 

The Republic, 

Dawn of the New Day, 

Reformers, 

The Garden of Eden, 

Thomas Paine. 

The Age of Faith, 

Origin of Religion, 



CONTENTS. 
The Unpardonable Sin, 
The Olive Branch, 
Free Will, 
The King of Death, 
The Wise Man, 
Bruno, 

The Real Bible, 
Benedict Spinoza, 
The First Doubt, 
The Infinite Horror, 
Nature, 

Night and Morning, 
The Conflict, 
Death of the Aged, 
The Charity of Extravagance 
Woman, 

The Sacred Myths, 
Inspiration, 

Religious Liberty of the Bible. 
The Laugh of a child. 
The Christian Night, 
My Choice, 
Why? 

Imagination. 
Science, 

If Death Ends All, 
Here and There, 
How Long ? 
Liberty, 

Jehovah and Brahma, 
The Free Soul, 
Life, 
Tribute to Henry Ward 

Beecher, 
Tribute to Courtlandt Palmer 
The Brain, 



The Sacred Leaves, 

Origin and Destiny. 

What is Poetry ? 

My Position, 

Good and Bad, 

The Miraculous Book, 

Orthodox Dotage, 

The Abolitionists, 

P~->vidence, 

The Man Christ, 

The Divine Salutation, 

At the Grave of Benjamin W. 

Parker, 
Fashion and Beauty. 
Apostrophe to Science, 
Elizur Wright. 
The Imagination, 
No Respecter of Persons, 
Abraham Lincoln, 
The Meaning of Law, 
What is Blasphemy ? 
Some Reasons, 
Selections, 
Love, 

The Birtholace of Burns. 
Mrs. Ida Whiting Knowles, 
Art and Morality, 
Tribute to Roscoe Conklin, 
Tribute to Rich'd H.Whiting. 
Mrs. Mary H. Fiske, 
Horace Seaver, 
The Music of Wagner, 
Leaves of Grass, 
\ ivisection, 

The Republic of Mediocrity, 
A Tribute to Walt Whitma n 



In Cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, - - $2.50 

In Half Morocco, giltedges, - 5.00 

In Half Calf, mottled edges, library style, - 4.50 

in Full Turkey Morocco, gilt, exquisitely fine, 7.50 

In Full Tree-Calf, highest possible finish, - 9.00 

Sent to any address, by express, prepaid, or mail, post free, on receipt of price. 
&§*A cheaper edition from same plates, good paper, wide margins, cloth, fl^O."^ 

Address C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, 

July, i895. New York City. N.Y. 



LIFE. 



A PROSE=POEM, 

— BY — 

Col. Rob'tG. Ingersoll. 



THIS world-famous monograph is without its peer in literature. 
It is a gem without a flaw. 

In this one piece of work, Mr. Ingersoll shows himself to be the 
poet, philosopher, painter, composer, and sculptor he really is, — a 
master of all arts, a teacher of all artists. It is an inspiration. A 
little bit of canvas, to be sure, but it contains the whole. With a 
touch of the brush —a point here, a line there, he paints it all. 
Each era, scene and circumstance is simply told in a word, a phrase, 
a line — and all the rest is suggested. Herein lies its greatness. 

Since its inception and first publication, the birth of a grandchild 
has put a new figure on the canvas, and it now appears with a portrait 
of the author with his " daughter's babe upon his knee" — a dream 
and a realization. 

The engraver's and printer's art have blended strength and beauty 
in their work, faithfully producing the dual portrait, and entwining a 
wild rose border about it and the text, making altogether an exquisite 
work of art, suitable for elegant frame, for parlor, easel or mantel. 

Printed and lithographed in color, and signed in auto- 
graph fac-simile on heavy card board, size 12.^ x 16 inches. 

Sent by mail, carefully wrapped, on receipt of price, 50 cts. 



— e-Oo— 



Address, C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, 

(Only authorised p-ublisher oi Go\. IiigexsolYs "booVLS.) 
January, 7897- (over.) 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Jan. 2005 

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